Durbin: ACA line needed clarification

Sen. Dick Durbin said Tuesday the cancellations people might face of their coverage under Obamacare and the statement that individuals could keep their plans “should have been clarified.”

“I can tell you that a couple more sentences added to it would’ve clarified it, and they should’ve been added. The president has apologized. I think he said very clearly he was sorry if he misled people,” Durbin (D-Ill.) said on CNN’s “Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield.”

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The number two Senate Democrat also acknowledged that he, in addition to President Barack Obama, told people that under the new law, if you like your plan, you can keep it.

“I said it because I believed it. Now I know that I should have added that for 98 percent of American people, that is exactly true. For the other two percent who are in the individual market, there are frequent changes in policies,” Durbin said.

When pressed about the talking points, Durbin said he “certainly wasn’t in on that decision,” but added there are ways to move forward.

He knocked some of the alternative proposals to Obamacare as “not friendly” and “designed to derail this effort.”

“I think we need to look at the political reality. We need to be open to constructive changes to make this law work better, but there are those frankly, that do not want it to work at all,” Durbin said.

He also addressed former President Bill Clinton’s comments from an interview posted Tuesday that Obama should “honor the commitment” and let people keep their plans. The senator reemphasized that it will depend if “those on the other side are willing to sit down in a constructive fashion.”

”I would say to to President Clinton, if we can bringing that bipartisan group together, we can start to solve some of the problems we’re facing,” Durbin said.